• Tools:
• Save |
• Print |
• E-mail |
• Most Popular |

Exhibit takes visitors from schoolhouse to White House

By Robert Yoon
CNN Washington Bureau

Adjust font size:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In October 1925, a 12 year-old boy in a small California town wrote in a school assignment that he "would like to study law and enter politics for an occupation so that I might be of some good to the people." The boy: Richard Milhous Nixon, some 43 years before being elected the nation's 37th president.

Young Nixon's eighth-grade essay is but one of more than 150 documents, photos, artifacts and mementos on display in a new National Archives exhibit focusing on the early lives and education of every American president since Herbert Hoover.

The National Archives are in downtown Washington.

The exhibit, called "School House to White House: The Education of Presidents," opened to the public Friday and runs through January 2008, just as voters begin the long process of electing the next president.

"It's fun looking at the presidents in grade school, high school and college," said Jennifer Nichols, the coordinator of the exhibit. "It gives you a little bit of insight as to who they were as boys, as their characters were forming, and what they were thinking."

The idea for an exhibit was sparked by the high level of interest in one item on display at the Archives -- President John F. Kennedy's college report card.

"We have Kennedy's transcripts in our permanent exhibit, and people were always fascinated by it. So the idea spun off from there," Nichols said. "Originally we thought it was probably going to be a fairly small exhibit -- just the report cards and photos to go along with it. A few months later, we found that, well, we have some good stuff here."

That "good stuff" on display includes Bill Clinton's music stand from his days in the high school marching band, Nixon's childhood violin, Gerald Ford's Boy Scout merit badges and Eagle Scout certificate, and scores of photos, letters, school assignments and home movies.

In addition to giving visitors a behind-the-scenes peek into the early home and school lives of the last 13 presidents, the exhibit is sort of a warning or wake-up call to any young, aspiring future presidents: That "D" you got in civics class may come back to haunt you.

"I'm sure when they were 18, many of them didn't imagine being president of the United States," Nichols said. "Children of today are going to start monitoring their school reports if they want to be president. They'll burn the bad ones and save the good ones."

More information on the exhibit can be found at the National Archives Web site.

Pregnant troops could face court-martial, general says A new order from the general in charge of U.S. troops northern Iraq makes getting pregnant or impregnating a fellow soldier an offense punishable by court-m ...

---

• Brittany Murphy autopsy conducted Monday
• Pregnant soldiers could face courts-martial
• 2 shot in county where 4 cops were killed
• Midwest braces for its turn with winter storm
• Poll: Tiger Woods' popularity falls

• Brazil custody ruling expected today
• Senate votes move health bill forward
• Deputies shot where 4 officers slain
• Volcano spews lava as eruption looms
• Centenarian honored by Obama dies

• Talkin' 'Icky Thump' blues (1:40)
• 'Why you treat yourself bad?' (3:15)
• Soviet culture returns (3:47)
• Unseemly rap lyrics targeted (3:29)
• Now In The News